How to ride narrow roads | Bike Commuters

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How to ride narrow roads

Jul 23rd 2008

By: Moe

8 comments

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Check out this video, it covers safe and legal cycling behavior on narrow roads:

Video Via CICLE.ORG Via LA Times

Popularity: 7% [?]

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- Colin
  
  July 23rd, 2008 at 16:06
  
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  Needs the sequel video: “How to deal with drivers honking and screaming expletives at you as you take the entire lane.”
- Lance
  
  July 23rd, 2008 at 16:34
  
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  haha, so true Colin.
  
  Thanks for the vid Moe. I run into bottleneck areas like this a couple times on my commute and always wonder if I’m doing the right thing. Now I won’t!
- Donald
  
  July 23rd, 2008 at 16:42
  
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  I agree with Colin. Some good advice, but a lot of it doesn’t work when motorists don’t cooperate. The advice about don’t-pass and go-ahead signals is great though. Something I’ve used periodically but never consciously.
- tadster
  
  July 23rd, 2008 at 17:02
  
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  Am I bad for not signaling when approaching a stop sign? I almost never use the “slow” signal.
- Sungsu
  
  July 23rd, 2008 at 20:53
  
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  I don’t understand how using the “slow or stop” signal indicates the motorist should wait and not pass?
- Iron Man
  
  July 24th, 2008 at 05:53
  
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  I’ve used the hand signals for don’t pass or pass and it works, but only for the drivers that are patient and willing. Other drivers get hacked off and do what they want anyway—and then nearly cause a wreck. So maybe they learned something that will benefit the next cyclist. I don’t signal a stop when it’s painfully obvious that all traffic is stopped, but on narrow, overgrown, hard to see roads like that a little signal could help the driver behind.
  
  Personally I think anything a cyclist could do to show that he/she is trying to cooperate with traffic and communicate politely with drivers is a good thing.
- tadster
  
  July 24th, 2008 at 07:56
  
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  Honestly, the reason I usually don’t signal “stop/slow” is because I feel nervous taking a hand off or away from the brake in a situation where I will clearly have to brake soon.
  
  The front brake is almost universally on the left side (the signal side). Sheldon wrote that he always switched his front brake lever to the right side. I’m thinking more and more about doing that.
- Michael
  
  July 24th, 2008 at 11:28
  
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  I’ve got my front brake on the right lever, and I definitely prefer it.
  
  I noticed in the “Cyclist moves to right on uphill” segment something that I see all the time on the road: At about 2:49 in the video, the third vehicle to pass (all of whom are crossing the double yellow to pass) crosses back into the lane just in time to avoid a head-on collision.
  
  While I appreciate the consideration of motorists who are willing to give me such wide clearance when passing, I don’t think that it’s worth the possibility of a collision.
  
  Granted, I stay to the right as much as possible, especially on uphills, but the double yellow lines are meant to indicate an area in which a motorist is not permitted to pass due to hills, curves, or other visibility issues. I don’t think there’s anything that I can do as a cyclist to prevent this behavior, but I do think the video shows that the best way to stay safe on the road is to keep yourself out of the way and allow motorists to make their own choices, even when they are poor, or illegal.
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